Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked legislation to keep the government funded through Dec. 11 because it would have also stripped out funding for Planned Parenthood.
The measure was all but guaranteed to fail because the Senate Republican majority does not control the 60 votes needed to advance the legislation. It fell in a 47-52 vote that saw a handful of Republicans vote against the measure.
There are now six days left before the end of the fiscal year, and the government could be in for a partial shutdown if no spending bill is approved by Sept. 30. Republican leaders, eager to avoid politically dangerous shutdown, have said they would introduce a new temporary funding measure that leaves Planned Parenthood funding intact and can win enough Democratic votes to pass.
Senators said after the vote that a vote on the new language that leaves Planned Parenthood intact will happen Monday.
Republicans want to defund Planned Parenthood in the wake of undercover videos that show organization officials appearing to discuss the sale of fetal body parts. In the bill Democrats defeated on Thursday, $235 million in Planned Parenthood funding would have been redirected to other health centers for one year.
McConnell said the bill that failed Thursday would have given Congress time to investigate “these serious allegations” against the organization concerning the sale of body parts.
The temporary funding bill would have funded the government through Dec. 11, which would buy time for lawmakers in both parties to work out a spending deal that would last the entire 2016 fiscal year. The bill adhered to spending caps mandated in the 2011 Budget Control Act, which limits annual federal discretionary spending to $1.017 trillion.
Aside from Planned Parenthood, the two parties are also fighting about the overall level of government funding. Democrats want the caps lifted, but are likely to agree to a short term deal that adheres to the limits as long as Planned Parenthood funding is left intact.
A long-term deal, however, will likely have to center on an accord on higher spending levels coupled with either revenue increases, cuts or a combination of both.
On Thursday, Senate Democrats called on Republicans to sit down and negotiate with them in the Capitol. They criticized the GOP for putting a measure on the floor that would defund Planned Parenthood that had no chance of passing.
“Here we stand, days before government funding expires, wasting time on publicity stunts,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. He called on the GOP to “stop this brinkmanship and work with Democrats.”
Republican leaders have signaled they won’t push Planned Parenthood defunding to the point of a government shutdown. But they will have to contend with their conservative flank, including GOP presidential contenders Ted Cruz, of Texas, and Rand Paul, of Kentucky, who may yet try to push for a government spending measure that leaves out funding for Planned Parenthood.
“On the upcoming CR, we should fund the entire federal government, but we should decline to fund Planned Parenthood,” Cruz said on Twitter.
